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"The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" is the title of a by . Recorded on , the song was released on Dylan's album and gives a generally factual account of the killing of 51-year-old barmaid Hattie Carroll by the wealthy young William Devereux "Billy" Zantzinger (whom the song calls "William Zanzinger"), and his subsequent sentence to six months in jail.The actual incident took place , 1963 at a ball at the Emerson Hotel in .
Dylan's song accurately implies, but never states, that Carroll was black and Zantzinger is white. The song incorrectly states that Zantzinger beat Carroll to death with his cane when in fact, he drunkenly assaulted Carroll and at least two others with a toy cane (a and a both also reported being attacked by Zantzinger the same night). At about 1:30am on the morning of the 9th, he ordered a drink from barmaid Carroll and when she didn't bring it immediately, he cursed at her to which Carroll replied: "I'm hurrying as fast as I can.
" Zantzinger said: "I don't have to take that kind of shit off a ," and struck her on the shoulder with the cane. Carroll was heard to remark "I feel deathly ill, that man has upset me so" soon after, before collapsing and being taken to the hospital. After Carroll died the following morning, Zantzinger was charged with .
However, this was changed to and after it was discovered that Carroll had hardened arteries ( ), an , and , and that she had in fact probably died of a caused by the stress of Zantzinger's verbal and physical abuse, rather than the physical assault itself (the cane left no mark on her).
On , 1963 Zantzinger was convicted of and and was sentenced to six months. Dylan's song strongly implies that his upper-class status contributed to the brevity of the sentence.
After the sentence was announced, the conjectured that Zantzinger was not given a longer sentence to keep him out of the state , since the notoriety of his crime would make him a marked target among its largely black inmates (Zantzinger instead served his time in the comparative safety of the Washington county jail). Zantzinger began serving his term on , and also paid to the Carroll family, of his own volition, the sum of twenty five thousand dollars.
Dylan recorded his song on , when the trial was still relatively fresh news, and incorporated it into his live repertoire immediately, before releasing the studio version on , .
Dylan also performed the song on network television program soon after its release.
Zantzinger ( ) told Howard Sounes, in Down the Highway, the Life of Bob Dylan, "It's actually had no effect upon my life", but is vitriolic in his scorn for Dylan, saying, "He's a no-account son of a bitch", claiming that the song is inaccurate. "He's just like a scum of a scum bag [sic] of the earth, I should have sued him and put him in jail".
He claims that the song is a total lie, but has never attempted to prevent Dylan from performing it.
Nevertheless, the song has continued to haunt Zantzinger in later controversies. Zantzinger openly rented properties in violation of unenforced county codes.
In 1991, it became known that not only did he rent out properties which he no longer owned, but even won court battles against delinquent tenants on those properties. The fact that the families who rented these properties were black, coupled with Zantzinger's past, led to charges of . Dylan's song was invoked as an anthem for those calling for Zantzinger's prosecution.
Despite the song's topical nature, Dylan continues to perform it in concert to this day. Live renditions of the song by its author can be found on the albums Live 1975 ( ) and Live 1964 ( ).
In , Dylan includes "Hattie Carroll" in a list of those of his early songs he feels were influenced by his belated introduction to the work of and , including "Pirate Jenny" ("The Black Freighter").
Dylan writes that he was impressed by how the Brecht-Weill songs wedded a complex lyrical perspective to simple folk song structures.
In part because the names Carroll and Zan(t)zinger both end on unstressed syllables, the lines of the verses all use a , although the chorus does not.
An episode of , set in Baltimore, mentions the song in reference to a case in which a wealthy black person is charged with the death of their white domestic.
The reggae influenced band did a cover version of the song for a compilation titled "Listen to Bob Dylan."
The reggae singer , formerly of , also did a cover of this song for a compilation produced by Dr. Dread titled " "
The comic strip "Three Panel Soul" (by the creators of ) includes a strip where a character is modeled and named after William Zanzinger.
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